Opinions of Tuesday, 1 April 2014
Columnist: Tawiah, Francis
credit: radioxyzonline
Members of Parliament (MP's) in Ghana are demanding personal bodyguards for their safety. They are saying past and recent attacks on some Legislators make it necessary for bodyguards protection.
The MP's expressed concerns about the recent spate of 'contract killings' in the country and said Legislators could be constant targets.
They are therefore demanding proper resourcing of the Police service to ensure general security for the entire public and also bodyguard security for every single Parliamentarian in the country since they all form part of the arms of Government.
According to them some of the MP's who have suffered robbery attacks are Nkwanta South MP Gershon Gbediame, who was robbed of his two ipads, six mobile phones, Ghc5000 and $7,500 as well as jewellery. His assailants robbed him at gunpoint at his Lashibi residence near Tema on January 11, 2014. Other members of Parliament like Joseph Ofori who was also attacked in October last year, was stabbed in the head and the Majority Leader Benjamin Kumbuor also suffered an attack a few years ago.
It is really sad that some MP's have become victims of such unscrupulous robbers but 'tweaa' as broken as Ghana is, because of our bogus governance, how dare the MP's make such an unbearable demand, knowing very well it will be tantamount to expanding the volume the Police service while government cannot accurately pay the salaries of the present staff of the Police service.
Even some of the police commanders, as we have being hearing have to raise loans from the bank to meet some their internal demands. The MP's are very funny, we have hundreds of MP's currently in Ghana and just imagine they all get bodyguards from the Police service. What about the other Ghanaian citizens who have also being attacked and can still be attacked by robbers, can they also get bodyguards? 'Tweaa'
FRANCIS TAWIAH (Duisburg - Germany)